Fall work underway on the ranch

There's no doubt what's going on at the average American ranch this week and last. You don't even have to call and ask.

It's one of the busiest weeks of the year, a demanding and important time for the economic health of the business side of the ranching enterprise.

The grazing season is over on public lands, which are leased for a specified number of days of grazing each year. When the time is up, it's up. The cattle have to come home, where there isn't enough feed to keep them all very long. Important decisions must be made quickly.

If the calves aren't weaned from their mothers, that must be done. In any case, they must be evaluated, deciding which females are worth keeping in the herd as cows, and if there any steers that should be marketed as show or club calves. The rest of the calf crop is either already sold on the summer video events and must be shipped by the agreed-on date, or ready to sell at the local sale barn or to an order buyer representing a stocker or feeder buyer.

The cows must be preg-checked, and the open ones culled. The number of these will influence how many heifers will be kept out of the calf crop. It is a crucial economic decision, as an open cow means no calf to sell for cash. This is very expensive. The factory didn't produce.

This fall is the major payday for most ranchers. There's little dibs and drabs of income here and there, from selling feed and cull cattle, but marketing the calf crop each year is the major source of a year's earnings.

Yes, it's an important week, out on the ranch.